Red Sox journal: Rookie hurler Hottovy put to test

Saturday

TORONTO — It was one of those matchups that a rookie like Tommy Hottovy will tuck away and remember somewhere down the line.

TORONTO - It was one of those matchups that a rookie like TommyHottovy will tuck away and remember somewhere down the line.

Hottovy, who hadn't appeared in a game since last Sunday,pitched the eighth inning on Saturday. The first batter he faced?Jose Bautista.

"Obviously, it's exciting to get to face a hitter like him,"Hottovy said. "You want to test yourself and see where you're at. Iwant to face those guys and see just where you stack up and howyour stuff affects the swings they take. It's an awesomeexperience. You've got to learn from it and move on."

Bautista is almost unquestionably the best right-handed hitterin the American League, and it's possible you can remove all thosequalifiers and simply call him the best hitter in the game.

Pitching to him with a 12-run lead certainly makes thetête-à-tête less stressful, but it doesn'tnecessarily make it less instructive.

The lefty Hottovy came right at the righty Bautista, throwingfastballs to the inner half of the plate (the Sox had been workingBautista outside much of the series). He worked the slugger to afull count before his 3-2 slider stuck in his hand a bit too longand ended up flying behind Bautista.

"It's one of those things you've got to laugh at. It is what itis," Hottovy said with a smile afterward. "I tried to throw it andit, for some reason, wouldn't come out of my hand."

Hottovy worked around the leadoff walk to hold the Blue Jays offthe board in the eighth. He's yet to give up a run now in threebig-league appearances spanning 2 1/3 innings. More impressive, theRed Sox have yet to lose a game since they called up the29-year-old reliever from Pawtucket eight days ago.

When he went on the disabled list on May 8, Marco Scutarolamented that he had just started to find his swing after a roughstart.

That time on the DL didn't do anything to his rhythm at theplate.

Scutaro has been red-hot since coming off the disabled listearly last week, collecting four more hits on Saturday to improveto 8-for-20 (.400) since his return.

"He was actually, right before [he went on the DL], looking likehe was starting to swing it," manager Terry Francona said. "It'shuge for us. It's hard not to have Pedey (Dustin Pedroia) in thelineup because he's so good. But because we have Scut, we can playhim at second, we're going to play him at short tomorrow, it'sreally good. It's hard to go through the whole season and not haveguys nicked up or missing time. It'll really help us."

Going back to before he hit the DL, Scutaro is 14-for-31 in hislast eight games. He has a hit in all of them.

Scutaro's hot streak comes while Jed Lowrie has been strugglingat the plate and with a nagging shoulder injury. Francona saidScutaro will start on Sunday at short for Lowrie, his fifth startin six games on this road trip.

Break for Youkilis

Kevin Youkilis was out of the lineup for a routine day off.

Youkilis was a touch slow to get up after sliding into secondbase in Friday night's fifth inning. In the ninth, a check swingfoul ball off the knob of his bat caught some of the little fingeron his left hand as well.

"I thought it was a good day. He's just a little beat up,"Francona said. "Day game after night game. He can come back, playtomorrow and then have another day off. That'll be really good forhim."

A day off the turf at Rogers Centre, before a trip to TropicanaField and three more games on the artificial surface, likelyfactored into the decision as well.

Holding down the Jays

The last time the Red Sox were at Rogers Centre, their inabilityto corral the Blue Jays on the bases cost them a game.

In the tenth inning of a May 10 contest, Rajai Davis singledbefore stealing second and third with one out, eventually scoringthe game-winning run on David Cooper's sacrifice fly. It all cameagainst the battery of Matt Albers and Jason Varitek, with rookieshortstop Jose Iglesias perhaps not holding Davis close enough atsecond.

Boston is doing its best to avoid similar lapses this timearound.

"Very [aware of their speed]," Albers said. "We just went overthat, and how facing these guys, they have a lot of guys withspeed. They're going to run and try to force the action. So we tryto use that aggressiveness against them."

From a pitcher's standpoint, it comes down to varying yourdelivery to the plate and not developing too predictable apattern.

"You kind of want to mix it up when they're on base," explainedAlbers. "You try to vary your looks, vary your times. You've got tobe quick to the plate because they're going to run, especially onturf.... You can't just have a big leg kick and worry about thehitter because they're going to steal. As long as you have a goodidea before you get on the mound and before they get on base, thathelps."

In the field, there has to be strong communication between themiddle infielders as to who covers second base on a steal and whoholds the runner on if he gets t to the bag. There's a lot thatgoes into who draws that assignment, from the hitter at the plateto the context of the game.

"A lot has to do with who the hitter is, and then what pitcheswe're trying to throw to him," said third-base and infield coachTim Bogar. "The situation of the game, we have to factor that in,too. "If he's a big run, if there's two outs, if we think we canget the hitter out, if it's a middle-of-the-lineup guy where we'retrying to keep the damage low -- certain things change."

The Blue Jays have exploited the Sox on the bases more than anyother team this season so far, with 15 steals in seven games,including four in that extra-inning win in May. Boston did a betterjob on Friday night, limiting Toronto to a single Jayson Nix stealin the third inning.

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